118 replies to this topic

[Omicron]

Hinckley, on 13 August 2012 - 01:48 AM, said:

you're
conjunction (used as a subject and verb, not as a possessive)
1. conjunction of you and are
2. cannot substitute the word 'your'

your
adj (not for use as a conjunction of you and are)
1. of or relating to you or yourself or yourselves especially as possessor or possessors <your bodies>, agent or agents <your contributions>, or object or objects of an action <your discharge>
2. of or relating to one or oneself <when you face the north, east is at your right>
3. —used with little or no meaning almost as an equivalent to the definite article the <your typical teenager>

yore
noun
1. time past and especially long past —usually used in the phrase of yore

lawl :P

Fixed.

-Omi

[Hinckley]

Omicron, on 13 August 2012 - 04:02 AM, said:

lawl :P

Fixed.

-Omi

Thanks.

[Capt. Redblade]

Hinckley, on 13 August 2012 - 01:48 AM, said:

you're
conjunction (used as a subject and verb, not as a possessive)
1. conjunction of you and are
2. cannot substitute the word 'your'

your
adj (not for use as a conjunction of you and are)
1. of or relating to you or yourself or yourselves especially as possessor or possessors <your bodies>, agent or agents <your contributions>, or object or objects of an action <your discharge>
2. of or relating to one or oneself <when you face the north, east is at your right>
3. —used with little or no meaning almost as an equivalent to the definite article the <your typical teenager>

yore
noun
1. time past and especially long past —usually used in the phrase of yore

Thank you, Hinck. What would we Grammar Nazis do without you?  

[spzero]

Ok I understand why they will make most set's the prince of persia was a bit iffy and however cool it would be to have a Shaun of the Dead set I back there stance not to make it.

However Religion is there biggest downfall.

Advent calendar's (starwars, city etc etc every year)

lets have a look wikipedia says
"An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas."

Oh well what is Christmas? again wikipedia

"Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, literally "Christ's mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ,[5][6] celebrated generally on December 25[2][3][4] as a religious and cultural holiday "

Oh look its religious, also Santa Claus also known as saint nick lets see what a saint is: wiki again

"A saint is a holy person.[1] In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness."

Oh look same applies to valentines day as its a saints day.

Also Birthdays if we look at the history of such

again wiki.... "The Romans enthusiastically celebrated birthdays with hedonistic parties and generous presents.[14] In revulsion, the early Christians rejected the practice as inherently pagan."

Also marriage is a highly religious thing just look at the debate in the UK between the church and government about same sex marriage in Churches


So Lego now have to stop making
Christmas specials, santa minikits, advent calanders,

mini-kit hearts or roses for valentines day,
no more birthday, cards invites etc etc

Wedding favours the bride CMF. town hall set

LEGO have let themselves down.

Edited by spzero, 16 August 2012 - 03:53 PM.

[Sam892]

Lego never refers to those sets as Christmas sets however there called holiday sets. I don't have a problem with any sort of religious set or even a military theme like a WWII theme for example but I understand there reasons for not making them. The holiday sets however are most likely not released world wide. I doubt that Lego would release these sets in places such as Asia or the middle east where the main population don't celebrate Christmas. In today's world Christmas has become less of a Christian holiday and is celebrated by many. I know lots of people who are Hindu, Muslim and atheists who buy presents and have Christmas dinner with family on December 25. One of the reasons that Christmas and even Easter are more Mainstream is because of the commercialism that surrounds them.

[General Magma]

So how's the violence-policy thing's stance as far as video games go?
The new LEGO Lord of the Rings game seems to be rated PEGI 12 - does that change anything as for the policies?
Since one of the new videos of game footage shows an Uruk-hai being shot near the neck and dropping dead with a spatter of blood.
Just wondered about this since a visible usage of blood like that seems to be new for LEGO.

[Aanchir]

spzero, on 16 August 2012 - 03:52 PM, said:

Ok I understand why they will make most set's the prince of persia was a bit iffy and however cool it would be to have a Shaun of the Dead set I back there stance not to make it.

However Religion is there biggest downfall.

Advent calendar's (starwars, city etc etc every year)

lets have a look wikipedia says
"An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas."

Oh well what is Christmas? again wikipedia

"Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, literally "Christ's mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ,[5][6] celebrated generally on December 25[2][3][4] as a religious and cultural holiday "

Oh look its religious, also Santa Claus also known as saint nick lets see what a saint is: wiki again

"A saint is a holy person.[1] In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness."

Oh look same applies to valentines day as its a saints day.

Also Birthdays if we look at the history of such

again wiki.... "The Romans enthusiastically celebrated birthdays with hedonistic parties and generous presents.[14] In revulsion, the early Christians rejected the practice as inherently pagan."

Also marriage is a highly religious thing just look at the debate in the UK between the church and government about same sex marriage in Churches


So Lego now have to stop making
Christmas specials, santa minikits, advent calanders,

mini-kit hearts or roses for valentines day,
no more birthday, cards invites etc etc

Wedding favours the bride CMF. town hall set

LEGO have let themselves down.

LEGO has not included any of the explicitly religious aspects of Christmas in sets, besides perhaps some "Angel" sets from many years ago. Santa Claus is not always identified with Saint Nicholas, and the Christmas tree is originally derived from pagan rituals and is now a part of many secular Christmas celebrations here in the United States. In fact, Christmas is celebrated in some parts of the world as almost a purely secular holiday. See here for an extreme example.

As for Valentine's Day, it is also mostly celebrated as a secular holiday, at least here in the United States. Very few people actually are well-versed in its religious side, and in fact some people believe the holiday is itself a conspiracy by greeting card companies (which for the most part is poppycock, though it can't be ignored that if not for the secular celebration of the holiday it would not be celebrated nearly as much here as it is).

Weddings have NEVER been a occasion specific to one religion, since they exist in cultures all around the world, and I know of no religious wedding ceremonies that take place at a town hall rather than a church.

Birthdays may have once been a religious occasion. But today they are only a religious occasion for very few, if for anyone at all. I have never attended a birthday celebration that had any religious ties, and chances are neither have most LEGO buyers.

Really, all TLG has is a policy against explicit religious symbols like the cross, the Star of David, the Islamic star and crescent, and religious figures. This does not prohibit them from selling anything that was ever connected with religion. I apologize, but your arguments that TLG is violating its own policies are perhaps the weakest arguments I have ever read in this topic or even on this entire site.

[TheLegoDr]

I love when people use Wiki to defend their arguments, since anyone can put whatever they want in Wiki without fact checking. That isn't to say there is some truth behind a lot of entries there. But I would think TLG is aware of their policies and their limitations. They may stretch the boundaries at times and be strict other times. But that is their business decision.

[Robominer]

I think that LEGO would never make any licensed theme that wouldn't make money. However, their main target group is kids, so stuff like Firefly and Shaun of the Dead, wouldn't really appeal to kids. Appeal to kids is most likely the leading criteria when deciding on whether to make a new theme, or reviewing a CUUSOO idea.
LEGO may even take appeal to kids a whether the idea incorporates violence, religion, or politics. I really don't know how much they really stick to these "moral issues" though, seeing that LEGO made Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and Super Heroes/Batman.

[Faefrost]

spzero, on 16 August 2012 - 03:52 PM, said:

Ok I understand why they will make most set's the prince of persia was a bit iffy and however cool it would be to have a Shaun of the Dead set I back there stance not to make it.

However Religion is there biggest downfall.

Advent calendar's (starwars, city etc etc every year)

lets have a look wikipedia says
"An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas."

Oh well what is Christmas? again wikipedia

"Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, literally "Christ's mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ,[5][6] celebrated generally on December 25[2][3][4] as a religious and cultural holiday "

Oh look its religious, also Santa Claus also known as saint nick lets see what a saint is: wiki again

"A saint is a holy person.[1] In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness."

Oh look same applies to valentines day as its a saints day.

Also Birthdays if we look at the history of such

again wiki.... "The Romans enthusiastically celebrated birthdays with hedonistic parties and generous presents.[14] In revulsion, the early Christians rejected the practice as inherently pagan."

Also marriage is a highly religious thing just look at the debate in the UK between the church and government about same sex marriage in Churches


So Lego now have to stop making
Christmas specials, santa minikits, advent calanders,

mini-kit hearts or roses for valentines day,
no more birthday, cards invites etc etc

Wedding favours the bride CMF. town hall set

LEGO have let themselves down.

You are reading way way way too much into Lego's aversion to religious subjects. And the rules are never as hard and fast as internet layers make them out to be.

The core of it we also need to keep in mind is that of culture. Lego is made in the Denmark. While Lego maintains a fairly neutral secular stance, insuring that its toys are appropriate worldwide, they are still made by a Northern Western European culture. Christmas is an important national and cultural holiday. The Advent calender is as much a holiday tradition in this part of the world as it is of religious connotation. And the people making the products have no issues with this distinction in their mind. They do not make biblical or Torah or Koran themed playsets. No Moses, No Noah. No Jesus (oh boy wouldn't an Easter set be fun!) No Mohammed sets (even more fun, plus death threats for making a prophet minifig. What a collectors item that would be!). But they have long had a history of making sets that reflect some of the cultural underpinnings that come about from religion, without directly showing practices of faith or scripture. The Christmas (or Holiday) Village sets. The Advent Calender. Assorted Eastern Temples in everything from Ninjago to Adventurers. The Prince of Persia sets. But please understand they are a Western European company. They make toys based on the cultural norms that they best understand.

[LEGO Historian]

I'm not getting involved in the Cuuscoo discussions or reasoning.... TLG does what they do without telling us anyway....

But I will give some historic background on the origins of TLG in the mainly Lutheran rural area of Jutland, where Billund is located.

Many of the folks (at least back in the 1950s and 1960s) living in Billund area were/are members of a conservative Lutheran organization called (in English) "Inner Mission" (Indre Mission in Danish).  And back in the 1950s employees used to get "glow in the dark" crosses that were given to TLG employees, and also sold to other religious groups and individuals...

Brickpedia has a nice image of the LEGO produced cross and the box it came in...
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Indre_Cross

Also Wikipedia has some background on the organization itself...
http://en.wikipedia....sion_in_Denmark

Now as for religious LEGO items... back in 1957-62 TLG actually made a #309 Church Set (numbered #1309 in Denmark, Norway and Sweden only from 1957-58 before switching set numbers and dropping the first digit)...
http://www.peeron.co...-2?showpic=3585

Also, another church was shown on the box top of the continental European #810 Town Plan set of 1961-66... but the instructions inside never showed a church (those classic 1x1x2 windows for the church were not included in the set)...
http://www.peeron.co...2?showpic=12261

Danes are mainly Lutherans (a rather conservative form of protestantism)... and the only reason for a church model was because a church was a likely town building back then.
___________________

On a different note was the fact that although today smoking is becoming universally frowned upon.... back in the 1955-70 era it wasn't as taboo.  And even TLG produced printed bricks back then with tobacco in the local language printed on them.

In the 1955-70 era there was always a spare parts pack box that had circa 7-8 printed 1x6 and 1x8 white bricks with different names.  Common ones were GARAGE, CINEMA, ESSO SERVICE, KIOSK... etc.  But one printed brick that was found in every continental European LEGO country was for tobacco.  (NOTE: USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland and Australia did NOT have tobacco related printed bricks.)   But continental Europe did.  And here are some in the local languages...

TOBAK   (Denmark)

TOBAKK (Norway, Sweden)

TABAK  (Germany Austria, Switzerland and because they sold the Swiss names pack... also Portugal)

TABAC (France)

CIGARETTEN (Belgium)

SIGARETTEN (Netherlands)

TABACCHI (Italy)

TUPAAKKA (Finland)
_____________________

Times change, and today some of these above mentioned items would be "politically incorrect" to sell today.  And there are other things that maybe are OK for TLG to sell today, but not 50 years ago.

Just food for thought.... you may now get back to your haggling....  

[Haltiamieli]

LEGO Historian, on 25 August 2012 - 01:20 AM, said:

TUPAAKKA (Finland)

TUPAKKAA, to be exact

[LEGO Historian]

Haltiamieli, on 25 August 2012 - 02:06 AM, said:

TUPAKKAA, to be exact

LOL.... I knew that I wasn't 100% sure on the Finnish and Italian spelling... and was too lazy to look them up (Chapter 48 - Printed & Painted LEGO Parts) in my E-Book collectors guide....  and yes, you are correct... along with TAKSI, HOTELLI, TEATTERI, KIOSKI, ESSO HUOLTO and VW MYYNTI  

[LEGO Historian]

Although this is not the place, I would love to start a discussion about LEGO Finland... and see if anyone had any Finnish catalogs.  I have a page of the 1965 and 1966 Finnish Catalog (I got it from the TLG Archives so that I could get an image of the wooden box sets from each European country (there's over 60, don't you know!)).

Finland was one of those countries (like Belgium and Switzerland) that had bilingual catalogs (Finnish/Swedish), since something like 5.4% of the population of Finland spoke Swedish.

But I digress...

[CopMike]

LEGO Historian, on 25 August 2012 - 01:20 AM, said:

TOBAK   (Denmark)

TOBAKK (Norway, Sweden)

Sweden has the same spelling as Denmark actually - TOBAK !

LEGO Historian, on 25 August 2012 - 01:20 AM, said:

Many of the folks (at least back in the 1950s and 1960s) living in Billund area were/are members of a conservative Lutheran organization called (in English) "Inner Mission" (Indre Mission in Danish).

The religion is still a very important part when it comes to TLG, in more than one way.

[LEGO Historian]

CopMike, on 25 August 2012 - 07:39 AM, said:

Sweden has the same spelling as Denmark actually - TOBAK !

The religion is still a very important part when it comes to TLG, in more than one way.

LOL.... again... lazy... I looked at 3 pics of named beams... Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.... and the Swedish pic did not have a TOBAK brick (but the Norwegian pic did have TOBAKK and he Danish one did have a TOBAK brick... so I thougth hmmmmm.... the Swedish probably followed the Norwegian spelling... from now on I have to look at my "list by country" (a PDF list).  I noticed that sometimes the same spelling is used by Denmark and Norway (but not Sweden) and other times the same spelling is used by Denmark and Sweden (but not Norway).   VW SALG (Sales) is used by Denmark and Norway but not Sweden (which uses VW FORSALJNING)... and then Denmark and Sweden use GARAGE, while Norway uses GARASJE.

I'll have to have you Europeans validate my PRINTED BRICK LIST in my LEGO Collectors E-Book on pages 8-9 and 13-16 in Chapter 48 on Printed/Painted LEGO....
http://www.1000stein...ter 48 Vol2.pdf

[spzero]

I was not being totally serious about the whole religion thing. just that people will state a particular item or set would never be produced, when Lego will basically sell whatever they want if it will make lots of money and not get too many parents upset. at the end of the day they are a business. tho I think they should make an ark. as it does appear in so many cultures it is not really religious and there could be a non named minifigure, he does not have to be named Noah. but I doubt it would happen due to parents perception of the story and therefore Lego will probably never do it but never say never.

[Legogal]

Time for a nap......I'm thoroughly exhausted from skimming this thread!
It seems as if LEGO makes what it wants, which is certainly its right.
And as buyers, we get to decide what we want to buy.

Because of cultural differences in every country, there can be no agreement on what is right or wrong. There is no "right answer" here folks.
Guess we just have to accept that people differ and make the best of it.
TTFN (Ta ta for now as in a cheerful goodbye!)

Edited by Legogal, 26 August 2012 - 05:16 PM.

[dr jones]

LEGO Historian, on 25 August 2012 - 01:20 AM, said:

CIGARETTEN (Belgium)

SIGARETTEN (Netherlands)

And the Belgian language is dutch, just like in the Netherlands. So spelling is 'Sigaretten' as well. Sorry!

But I get your point, It all depends on the time period in which things were produced.